The Windows XP Service Pack 2 has finally become available. As you may recall from last week, I suggested that you do not automatically download it, but rather to schedule the download when you wished. If you are an XP Home Edition user, you should have gotten notification of the update by now. It has not yet been released to XP Professional Edition users as of the time I wrote this column. If you are XP Home and you haven't gotten notification, check on your Automatic Update status by right clicking on My Computer, selecting Properties and then the Automatic Updates tab.
In either case, you will now see the Automatic Updates icon in the bottom right of your screen, and are probably being bothered by popup balloons suggesting that you install the update.
I decided to try the update on my trusty notebook PC, which is the least critical of my 3 PCs. In my case, I did not use the Automatic Update, but rather downloaded the entire Service Pack file from the Microsoft website. It's easier to do that - download it once - than to download it three times (once of each PC). But the procedure is the same.
The update proceeded as these things usually do. It first checked the system for update validity, saved all the old files, copied the new ones, and then rebooted. After the reboot, the only apparent difference was the Security Center. I don't have a lot of experience with this yet and will write in detail next week. But the Security Center monitors functions such as anti-virus status and firewall status, and makes suggestions as to what to do when it feels your PC is lacking.
Since I am a Symantec (Norton) fan, I first checked to ensure that the Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Firewall would properly work under SP2. Symantec indicated that they would, but the Security Center would not know anymore that they existed. Symantec says this is because their products have enhanced security so that the viruses and spyware out there can't penetrate them.
Other than that, in my basic tests everything seemed to be working OK. I haven't had much contact with my clients on this issue yet - more next week.
So, for now it seems OK to install the update. I would first take a system checkpoint. Click Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / System Restore. Then click on Create A Restore Point and follow the prompts to create it. After that, I would turn off any excess programs running, disable both your anti-virus and firewall, and then go ahead and do the SP2 update. More details next week.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).